Apostasy

The term apostasy has several definitions, depending on the context. In the religious context it is used to describe the formal renunciation of one's religion, and as such, it generally has a negative connotation. One who commits apostasy is called an apostate, or one who apostatises. Many religious faiths consider apostasy to be a vice or sin. In some religious faiths an apostate can be excommunicated. In some Middle Eastern countries, it is punishable by death. Apostates commonly are shunned by the members of their former religious group. Asostasy has also acquired a protected status within the area of international law.

When used by sociologists this term does not have the pejorative connotations that is usually associated with the religious contest. It refers to the renunciation and/or criticism of, or opposition to one's former religion. but without any negative implication.

Few former believes would call themselves "apostates" because this phrase is generally used in a perjorative sense. Possible reasons for one's reunciation of his or her religious faith is loss of faith, for whatever reasons.

The difference between apostasy and heresy is that the latter refers to rejection or corruption of specific religious doctrines. It is not the complete abandonment of one's religious faith. Heretics claim to still be following their religious faith but call themselves the "true followers", whereas apostates reject the faith outright.

Apostasy is also used to refer to the renunciation of belief in a cause other than a particular religous faith, particularly in the area of politics. Some atheists and agnostics use the term "deconversion" instead of "apostasy" to describe the loss of faith in a religion. Those who view either traditional religion or new age religoius movements in a negative way see this change as in a positive way. It means that someone has seen the error of their prior beliefs and has regained their rationality.

Apostasy As Defined By The Major Religious Faiths

In Judaism:

The term apostasy is the rebellion against God, its law and the faith of Israelites|Israel (in [Hebrew language|Hebrew] מרד) in the Hebrew Bible.

Other expressions for apostate as used by rabbinical scholars are "mumar" (מומר, literally "the one that is changed") and "poshea yisrael" (פושע ישראל, literally, "transgressor of Israel"), or simply "kofer" (כופר, literally "denier").

In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 13:6-10 states:

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; [Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

The prophetic writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah provide many examples of defections of faith found among the Israelites (e.g., Isaiah 1:2-4 or Jeremiah 2:19), as do the writings of the prophet Ezekiel (e.g., Ezekiel 16 or 18). Israelite kings were often guilty of apostasy, examples including Ahab (I Kings 16:30-33), Ahaziah (I Kings 22:51-53), Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:6,10), Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:1-4), or Amon (2 Chronicles 33:21-23) among others. (Amon's father Manasseh was also apostate for many years of his long reign, although towards the end of his life he renounced his apostasy. Cf. 2 Chronicles 33:1-19)

Paul of Tarsus was accused of apostasy by the council of James the Just|James and the elders, for teaching apostasy from the law given by Moses (Acts 21:17-26). Scholars consider this the reason by which some early Christians, such as the Ebionites, repudiated Paul for being an apostate.

In the Talmud, Elisha Ben Abuyah (known as Aḥer) is singled out as an apostate and epicurean by the Pharisees.

During the Spanish inquisition, the systematic forced conversion of Jews to Christianity took place. Forcing Jews to renounce their religion under threat of death provoked the indignation of the Jewish communities in Spain.

Several notorious Inquisitors, such as Juan Torquemada, and Don Francisco the archbishop of Coria, were descendants of apostate Jews. Other apostates who made their mark in history by attempting the conversion of other Jews in the 1300s include Juan de Valladolid and Astruc Remoch.

However, the issue of what qualifies as "apostasy" in Judaism is complicated, since in many modern movements in Judaism, rabbis have generally considered the behavior of a Jew to be the determining factor in whether or not one is considered an adherent or an apostate of Judaism. Within these movements it is often recognized that it is possible for a Jew to strictly practise Judaism as a faith, while at the same time being an agnostic or atheist, giving rise to the riddle: "Q: What do you call a Jew who doesn't believe in God? A: A Jew." It is also worth noting that Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionism does not require any belief in a deity, and that certain popular Reform Judaism|Reform prayer books such as Gates of Prayer offer some services without mention of God.

Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in then Palestine, held that atheists were not actually denying God: rather, they were denying one of man's many images of God. Since any man-made image of God can be considered an idol, Kook held that, in practice, one could consider atheists as helping true religion burn away false images of god, thus in the end serving the purpose of true monotheism.

In Christianity:

File:Julian.jpg

Flavius Claudius Iulianus, Roman Emperor (361-363), was raised as Christian, but rejected this faith upon becoming emperor. His Christian enemies called him apostate, and therefore he is still widely known in English as Julian the Apostate.

The prophecy in Second Epistle to the Thessalonians has often been cited concerning apostasy:

"Let no man deceive you by any means, for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,"

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"

"Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction"

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that this foretold apostasy, "The Great Apostasy," began with the death of the early apostles and continued into the early nineteenth century. Mormons believe that the "priesthood" (the authority to act in God's name) was lost, and that the church as it existed in the days of Christ needed to be restored to its original condition. They believe the "restoration" was performed by Joseph Smith.

Many non-Mormons would argue that, in reference to the church as a whole, the Bible speaks of apostasies, but only of partial apostasies (see I Tim. 4:1, II Tim. 3:1-5). A partial apostasy (some, or a group of people turning from the faith) would not mean the church ceased to exist; it would only mean its size diminished. This view would hold that all of the proof texts suggested by Mormons would actually deal with either apostasy of Israel (Amos 8:11, Isa. 29) a partial apostasy during the church age, or apostasy during the tribulation period (future).

The apostasy can alternatively be interpreted as the pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church. This is because apostasy means departure (translated so in the first seven English translations).

Regarding apostasy on an individual level, some denominations quote Jude and Titus 3:10 saying that an apostate or heretic needs to be "rejected after the first and second admonition." Hebrews 6:4-6 notes the impossibility of those who have fallen away "to be brought back to repentance."

Jesus himself seemed fully aware of the individuals' loss of faith. His parable of the Sower in Luke chapter 8 talks of a farmer who sowed seed that fell along a path and was eaten by birds, seed that fell on a rock and whithered for lack of moisture, seed that was choked out by thorns, and seed that fell on good soil and yielded good crops, reflecting well the states of disbelief, apostasy of one type or another, and belief. In another situation, John 6:66 relates that, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." In speaking of the end times, Jesus said, "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other." (Matthew 24:10) There is also the possibility that Judas Iscariot's betrayal was related to apostasy (as opposed to never having believed).

The apostles also acknowledged individual apostasy. In addition to witnessing the aforementioned loss of faith by many disciples of Jesus recorded in John 6, Peter said that for believers in Christ who knowingly turn away from their faith that "the last state has become worse for them than the first" (2 Peter 2:20-22). John addresses the same problem (I John 2:18-19). The apostle Paul cited Hymenaeus and Alexander as specific examples of those who had rejected the faith (I Timothy 1:20).

The Catholic Church holds that in certain circumstances apostasy can cause one to be [excommunication|excommunicated] [Latae sententiae|latae sententiae.

In the first centuries of the Christian era - as well as other times such as 17th century Japan (See Kakure Kirishitan) - apostasy was most commonly induced by persecution, and was indicated by some outward act, such as offering incense to a heathen deity or blaspheming the name of Christ.^{[citation needed]} (The readmission of such apostates to the church was a matter that occasioned serious controversy.) The emperor Julian's "Apostasy" is discussed under Julian the Apostate. In the Catholic Church the word has been applied to the renunciation of monastic vows (apostasis a monachatu)^{[citation needed]}, and to the abandonment of the clerical profession for the life of the world (apostasis a clericatu)^{[citation needed]}, though this usage is a technical one, and refers to the renunciation of the respective states. Such defection was formerly often punished severely^{[citation needed]}.

See also Great Apostasy; for an Arminian doctrine of individual apostasy, see Conditional Preservation of the Saints.

In Hinduism and Buddhism

There is no concept of an apostate in Hinduism or Buddhism as there is no concept of conversion. Converts to other religions from Hinduism or Buddhism are accepted in these communities, as there is no Hindu or Buddhist procedure that defines apostasy.

In alleged cults and new religious movements (NRMs)

Some scholars of new religious movements define as apostates specifically those individuals that leave new religious movements and become public opponents against their former faith to distinguish them from other former members who do not speak against their former faith, while others contest such a distinction.

Some scholars use the term post-cult trauma to describe the emotional and social problems that some members of cults and new religious movements experience after leaving the group, while other scholars assert that such traumas are either only applicable in rare cases or are more likely caused by deprogramming or pre-existing psychological problems, not by voluntary leavetaking.

Some notable apostates are part of the secular opposition to cults and new religious movements or the Christian countercult movement. Some apostates of new religious movements make public stands against their former religion to warn the public of what they see as its dangers and harm. Several of those apostates maintain websites on their former groups with unflattering perspectives, testimonials and information which, they say, is not disclosed by those groups to the public. Critics like Basava Premanand complain about ad hominem attacks on them by their former organizations or by apologists of their former faith, and claim that their goal is to provide information that enables current and prospective members to make an informed choice about joining or staying with a religious movement. Some of the groups being criticized, such as Adidam in turn, claim being the target of religious intolerance, hate and ill-will by these critics.

Apostates of new religious movements make a number of allegations against their former affiliation and their leaders, including failed promises; sexual abuse by the leader who claimed to be pure and divine; false, irrational and contradictory teachings; deception; financial exploitation; demonizing of the outside world; abuse of power and hypocrisy of the leadership; discrimination; unnecessary secrecy; teaching platitudes; discouragement of critical thinking; brainwashing; mind control; exclusivism; pedophilia; leadership that does not admit any mistakes; and more.^{[citation needed]}

Opinions about the reliability of apostates' testimony and their motivations

The validity of testimony by former members of new religious movements, their motivations, and the roles they play in the opposition to cults and new religious movements are controversial subjects among scholars of religion, sociologists and psychologists:

Beit-Hallahmi

• Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, a professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, argues that academic supporters of New religious movements are engaged in a rhetoric of advocacy, apologetics and propaganda, and writes that in the cases of cult catastrophes such as Peoples Temple, or Heaven's Gate, accounts by hostile outsiders and detractors have been closer to reality than other accounts, and that in that context statements by ex-members turned out to be more accurate than those of offered by apologists and NRM researchers.

Bromley and Shupe

• Bromley and Shupe while discussing the role of anecdotal atrocity stories by apostates, proposes that these are likely to paint a caricature of the group, shaped by the apostate's current role rather than his experience in the group, and question's their motives and rationale. Lewis Carter and David G. Bromley claim in some studies that the onus of pathology experienced by former members of new religions movements should be shifted from these groups to the coercive activities of the anti-cult movement.

Charles

• Dr. Phillip Charles Lucas interviewed ex-members of the Holy order of MANS/Christ the Savior Brotherhood and compared them with stayers, and outside observers and came to the conclusion that their testimonies are as (un-)reliable as those of stayers.

Duhaime

• Jean Duhaime, a professor of religious studies and science of religion at the Université de Montréal writes, based upon his analysis of three memoirs by apostates of NRMs (by Dubreuil, Huguenin, Lavallée, see bibliography), that he is more balanced than some researchers, referring to Wilson, and that apostate testimonies cannot be dismissed, only because they are not objective, though he admits that they write atrocity stories in the definition by Bromley and Shupe. He asserts that the reasons why they tell their stories are, among others, to warn others to be careful in religious matters and to put order in their own lives.

Dunlop

• Mark Dunlop, a former member of FWBO, argues that ex-members of cultic groups face great obstacles in exposing abuses committed by these groups, stating that ex-members "have great difficulty in disproving ad hominem arguments, such as that they have a personal axe to grind, that they are trying to find a scapegoat to excuse their own failure or deficiency [...] Cults have a vested interest in challenging the personal credibility of their critics, and may cultivate academic researchers who attack the credibility and motives of ex-members." Dunlop further expands on the specific difficulties faced by ex-members in proving harms done to them: "If an ex-member claims that they were subjected to brainwashing or mind-control techniques, not only is this again unprovable, but in the mind of the general public, it is tantamount to admitting that they are a gullible and easily led person whose opinions, consequently, can't be worth much. If an ex-member suffers from any mental disorientation or evident psychiatric symptoms, this is likely to further diminish their credibility as a reliable informant." He concludes with "In general, the public credibility of critical ex-cultists seems to be somewhere in between that of Estate Agents and flying saucer abductees." In the article's summary [5], Dunlop argues that given that the apostates' testimony is ineffective due to lack of public credibility, and that other forms of criticism are also ineffectual for various reasons, cults are virtually immune from outside criticism making it very difficult to expose cults.

Introvigne

• Massimo Introvigne in his Defectors, Ordinary Leavetakers and Apostates defines three types of narratives constructed by apostates of new religious movements:
  • Type I naratives: characterize the exit process as defection, in which the organization and the former member negotiate an exiting process aimed at minimizing the damage for both parties.
  • Type II naratives: involve a minimal degree of negotiation between the exiting member, the organization it intends to leave, and the environment or society at large, impliying that the ordinary apostate holds no strong feelings concerning his past experience in the group.
  • Type III naratives: characterized by the ex-member dramatically reversing his loyalties and becomes a professional enemy of the organization he has left. These apostates, often join an oppositional coalition fighting the organization, often claiming victimization.

Introvigne argues that apostates professing type II narratives prevail among exiting members of controversial groups or organizations, while apostates that profess type III narratives are a vociferous minority.

Kliever

• Dr. Lonnie D. Kliever (1932 - 2004), Professor of Religious Studies of the Southern Methodist University, in his paper titled The Reliability of Apostate testimony about New Religious movements that he wrote upon request for Scientology, claims that the overwhelming majority of people who disengage from non-conforming religions harbor no lasting ill-will toward their past religious associations and activities, and that by contrast there is a much smaller number of apostates who are deeply invested and engaged in discrediting and performing actions designed to destroying the religious communities that once claimed their loyalties. He asserts that these dedicated opponents present a distorted view of the new religions and cannot be regarded as reliable informants by responsible journalists, scholars, or jurists. He claims that the reason for the lack of reliability of apostates is due to the traumatic nature of disaffiliation that he compares to a divorce and also due the influence of the anti-cult movement even on those apostates who were not deprogrammed or received exit counseling.

Langone

• Michael Langone argues that some will accept uncritically the positive reports of current members without calling such reports, for example, "benevolence tales" or "personal growth tales." He asserts that only the critical reports of ex-members are called "tales," which he considers to be a term that clearly implies falsehood or fiction. He states that it wasn't until 1996 that a researcher conducted a study (Zablocki, 1996) to assess the extent to which so called "atrocity tales" might be based on fact.

Melton

• Gordon Melton, while testifying as an expert witness in a lawsuit, said that when investigating groups, one should not rely solely upon the unverified testimony of ex-members, and that hostile ex-members would invariably shade the truth and blow out of proportion minor incidents turning them into major incidents. Melton also follows the argumentation of Lewis Carter and David Bromley above and claims that as a result of this study, the treatment (coerced or voluntary) of former members as people in need of psychological assistance largely ceased and that an (alleged) lack of widespread need for psychological help by former members of new religions would in itself be the strongest evidence refuting early sweeping condemnations of new religions as causes of psychological trauma.

Wilson

• Bryan R. Wilson, who was a professor of Sociology at Oxford University, writes that apostates of new religious movements, are generally in need of self-justification, seeking to reconstruct their own past and to excuse their former affiliations, while blaming those who were formerly their closest associates. Wilson utilizes the term of atrocity story that is in his view rehearsed by the apostate to explain how, by manipulation, coercion or deceit, he was recruited to a group that he now condemns. Wilson also challenges the reliability of the apostate's testimony by saying that "[apostates] always be seen as one whose personal history predisposes him to bias with respect to both his previous religious commitment and affiliations, the suspicion must arise that he acts from a personal motivation to vindicate himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a victim but subsequently to have become a redeemed crusader."

Wright

• Stuart A. Wright explores the distinction between the apostate narrative and the role of the apostate, asserting that the former follows a predictable pattern, in which the apostate utilizes a "captivity narrative" that emphasizes manipulation, entrapment and being victims of "sinister cult practices." These narratives provide a rationale for a "hostage-rescue" motif, in which cults are likened to POW camps and deprogramming as heroic hostage rescue efforts. He also makes a distinction between "leavetakers" and "apostates," asserting that despite the popular literature and lurid media accounts of stories of "rescued or recovering 'ex-cultists'," empirical studies of defectors from NRMs "generally indicate favorable, sympathetic or at the very least mixed responses toward their former group."

Zablocki

• Professor Benjamin Zablocki, when analyzing leaver responses, found the testimonies of former members as least as reliable as statements from the groups themselves.

Other uses of the term

In popular usage, religious terminology like "apostasy" is often appropriated for use within other public spheres characterized by strongly-held beliefs, like politics. Such usage typically carries a much less negative connotation than the religious usage does, and sometimes people will even describe themselves as apostates. Authors Kevin Phillips (a former Republican strategist turned harsh critic of the Bush administration) and Christopher Hitchens (a former left-wing commentator turned enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq War) are examples of people who are often described as political apostates.

Noted apostates

This is a list of some notable persons that have been labeled an apostate by reliable published sources.

Christianity

• Julian the Apostate ex-Christian and Roman emperor
• Maria Monk sometimes considered an apostate of the Catholic Church, though there is little evidence that she ever was a Catholic.

Islam

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali labelled an apostate by Theo van Gogh according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Salman Rushdie was accused of being an apostate of Islam by Ruhollah Khomeini due to the publication of his book The Satanic Verses
• Tasleema Nasreen, from Bangladesh, author of Lajja is wanted for defaming the name of Islam in Bangladesh

Judaism

• Tiberius Julius Alexander, 1st century Roman governor and general
• Baruch de Spinoza, a 17th century Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin

See also

• Religious conversion
• Religious intolerance
• Excommunication
• Defection
• Faith Freedom International
• Religious disaffiliation
• Apostata capiendo
• Mutaween
• Backslide

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dunlop, Mark, The culture of Cults, 2001 [6]
• Introvigne, Massimo Defectors, Ordinary Leavetakers and Apostates: A Quantitative Study of Former Members of New Acropolis in France - paper delivered at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, November 23, 1997 [7]
• The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). The Kopelman Foundation. [8]
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, The Odyssey of a New Religion: The Holy Order of MANS from New Age to Orthodoxy Indiana University press;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, Shifting Millennial Visions in New Religious Movements: The case of the Holy Order of MANS in The year 2000: Essays on the End edited by Charles B. Strozier, New York University Press 1997;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, The Eleventh Commandment Fellowship: A New Religious Movement Confronts the Ecological Crisis, Journal of Contemporary Religion 10:3, 1995:229-41;
• Lucas, Phillip Charles, Social factors in the Failure of New Religious Movements: A Case Study Using Stark's Success Model SYZYGY: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture 1:1, Winter 1992:39-53
• Zablocki, Benjamin et al., Research on NRMs in the Post-9/11 World, in Lucas, Phillip Charles et al. (ed.), NRMs in the 21st Century: legal, political, and social challenges in global perspective, 2004, ISBN 0-415-96577-2
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Apostates of Islam, why Islam should be avoided [9]

Bibliography

Testimonies, memoirs, and autobiographies

• Babinski, Edward (editor), Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists. Prometheus Books, 2003. ISBN-10: 1591022177; ISBN-13: 978-1591022176
• Dubreuil, J. P. 1994 L'Église de Scientology. Facile d'y entrer, difficile d'en sortir. Sherbrooke: private edition (ex-Church of Scientology)
• Huguenin, T. 1995 Le 54^e Paris Fixot (ex-Ordre du Temple Solaire who would be the 54th victim)
• Kaufmann, Inside Scientology/Dianetics: How I Joined Dianetics/Scientology and Became Superhuman, 1995 [10]
• Lavallée, G. 1994 L'alliance de la brebis. Rescapée de la secte de Moïse, Montréal: Club Québec Loisirs (ex-Roch Theriault)
• Pignotti, Monica, My nine lives in Scientology, 1989, [11]
• Wakefield, Margery, Testimony, 1996 [12]
• Lawrence Woodcraft, Astra Woodcraft, Zoe Woodcraft, The Woodcraft Family, Video Interviews [13]

Writings by others

• Bromley, David G. (Ed.) The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements CT, Praeger Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95508-7
• Carter, Lewis, F. Lewis, Carriers of Tales: On Assessing Credibility of Apostate and Other Outsider Accounts of Religious Practices published in the book The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements edited by David G. Bromley Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95508-7
• Elwell, Walter A. (Ed.) Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 1 A-I, Baker Book House, 1988, pages 130-131, "Apostasy." ISBN 0801034477
• Malinoski, Peter, Thoughts on Conducting Research with Former Cult Members , Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2001 [14]
• Palmer, Susan J. Apostates and their Role in the Construction of Grievance Claims against the Northeast Kingdom/Messianic Communities [15]
• Wilson, S.G., Leaving the Fold: Apostates and Defectors in Antiquity. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2004. ISBN-10: 0800636759; ISBN-13: 978-0800636753
• Wright, Stuart. Post-Involvement Attitudes of Voluntary Defectors from Controversial New Religious Movements. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 23 (1984): pp. 172-82